FA PREMIER LEAGUE: Manchester City 2 Aston Villa 0:THEY no longer make so many cars in Birmingham but they still recognise the sound of an engine seizing up. This was the sixth successive match Aston Villa have failed to win and, if Martin O'Neill imagined that exits from the FA and Uefa Cups might concentrate minds on the greater prize of the Champions League, he is being badly let down. The lead over Arsenal in fifth is just three points.
Aston Villa’s success has been built on a remarkable run of away results but for the first time since surrendering inexplicably at Newcastle on November 3rd, they returned to the Midlands without a win, having been outplayed and outfought by a Manchester City side that, deprived of several key players, was sustained by a remarkable performance from Shaun Wright-Phillips.
The gorgeous one-two with Stephen Ireland that finished with him sliding the ball home in the closing moments typified one of Manchester City’s finest displays of the season.
Once the home side were ahead, Villa were forced to push forward in numbers – although it was the 70th minute before Shay Given was forced to actually make a save – leaving themselves open to counter-punches. And but for Brad Friedel’s brilliance at full stretch, Elano would have settled matters a quarter of an hour before Wright-Phillips did.
Manchester City and Aston Villa crave the Champions League sooner rather than later but are going about it in entirely different ways. Mark Hughes, you suspect, would prefer to follow O’Neill’s path of building a team with British foundations step by step rather than oversee the footballing equivalent of a millionaire’s trolley dash through Fortnum and Mason – which is what Manchester City will be doing in the transfer markets this summer.
However, much of this display suggested that City do not require the marquee names of Europe to flourish. Some might cynically say it was not a coincidence their most expensive players were elsewhere – Robinho and Craig Bellamy nursing injuries, Jo with Everton at Ewood Park. All you can do is report that a club that traditionally responds as well to adversity as a cheesecake left out in a thunderstorm girded its loins and fought and played magnificently.
The catalyst was Wright-Phillips, who attacked the Villa defence with pace and invention. Before winning the penalty, Wright-Phillips had appeared to squander the chance of the evening when slipped clean through by a beautifully-weighted pass from Ireland. Eastlands rose to its feet to greet the goal, only to find the shot had somehow gone the other side of the post.
However, City kept passing, Wright-Phillips kept menacing and moments later he was tripped in the area by James Milner. As Elano went up to take the penalty, he stopped and you looked for the ball in the mass of Villa fans behind Friedel’s net. The American guessed right but couldn’t prevent Elano’s first goal since October.
Villa, by contrast, looked anaemic. Emile Heskey kept finding himself too deep or too wide. Gabriel Agbonlahor, who had destroyed Manchester City with a hat-trick early this season, was well handled while Ashley Young’s crossing lacked any capacity to hurt. At half-time O’Neill brought on a third striker in John Carew but many watching must have thought Villa needed a deeper reshuffle than this.
MAN CITY: Given, Zabaleta, Onuoha, Dunne, Bridge,Wright-Phillips, Ireland, Kompany, De Jong (Fernandes 47), Elano (Bojinov 83), Caicedo (Evans 74).Subs not used: Hart, Vassell, Garrido, Berti. Booked: Caicedo. Goals: Elano 24 pen, Wright-Phillips 89.
ASTON VILLA: Friedel, Cuellar (Gardner 88), Davies (Carew 46), Knight, Luke Young, Milner, Petrov, Barry, Ashley Young, Agbonlahor, Heskey. Subs not used: Guzan, Harewood, Delfouneso, Reo-Coker, Shorey. Booked: Milner, Barry.
Referee: C Foy (Merseyside).
GuardianServices
